Month: June 2022

Unraveling the Challenges of Comparing Biological and Artificial Intelligences

Understanding the similarities and differences between human intelligence, animal intelligence, and artificial intelligence can be like trying to match puzzle pieces that could fit in multiple places. Previous attempts to bridge this gap have relied on measuring success in problem-solving tasks, but there is another approach called ‘signature-testing’ that focuses on finding patterns, errors, and […]

Published on June 28, 2022

Volunteer ‘community scientists’ do a pretty darn good job generating usable data

Volunteer community scientists, aka citizen scientists, help researchers with data collection that would otherwise be a time-consuming slog. But while community science can be a valuable learning experience, the question remains how useful the volunteer-generated data actually are in research. In this new study, researchers analyzed measurements of microscopic plant leaves done by community scientists […]

Published on June 27, 2022

Sniffing out social connections: Body odor’s role in bonding

Friendships may be forged through a shared scent, similar to how animals identify their pack members by smell. Scientists have discovered that people tend to gravitate towards individuals whose body odor matches their own. To put this theory to the test, researchers used a fancy gadget called an electronic nose, which can analyze and predict […]

Published on June 27, 2022